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Jesus asks us to make a radical choice

St. Peter, depicted by Peter Paul Rubens in approx. 1610, was given the keys to heaven by Christ, with the promise, "to exclude from the kingdom any whom Peter excluded, and to include any whom Peter included." (Wikimedia Commons)

We
all try to discern what is best. Like merchants looking for pearls, or
fishermen casting our nets into the sea, we ask, “What is worth keeping? What
should we throw away?” No wonder Solomon asked God for the ability “to discern
between good and evil.”

In
this Sunday’s liturgy, Jesus gives the answer: like “a treasure hidden in a
field” or “one pearl of great value,” the kingdom of heaven
is worth everything else we own.

“To
those who seek the kingdom
of God and his
righteousness, he has promised to give all else besides,” says the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “Since
everything indeed belongs to God, he who possesses God wants for nothing.”

What
is the kingdom of heaven?
Where do we find it? How do we become citizens?

Even
the apostles were puzzled. For a long time they expected the inauguration of
God’s kingdom to free Israel
from the Romans.

Jesus
first mentioned his kingdom at the beginning of his public life, when he said,
“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom
of God is at hand;
repent, and believe the good news.” Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium says he
inaugurated his kingdom on earth “to carry out the will of the Father,” which
is “to raise up men to share in his own divine life.”

To
carry out this mission, Jesus chose twelve men to be with him and share his
authority. To one of them, Peter, he gave the keys of his kingdom, promising to
exclude from the kingdom any whom Peter excluded, and to include any whom Peter
included.

Thus
Jesus formed his Church, the seed and beginning, on earth, of God’s kingdom. By
preaching, performing miracles, and sending out his disciples, he called all
people to enter it.

We
need not be perfect. Jesus came to call sinners, not the righteous, and
proved it by the sacrifice of his own life for the forgiveness of sins.

However,
we must repent our sins. Then we must detach ourselves from riches, like the
poor widow who gave all she had to live on. We must prefer Jesus to everything
and everyone else and be ready to give up all we have for his sake, like the
merchant with the incomparable pearl.

To gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not enough; deeds are required.The Catechism of the Catholic Church

Jesus asks for a radical choice. As theCatechism says, “to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not enough; deeds are required.”

The
paths to God’s kingdom are indicated by the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the
Mount, and the Church’s teaching, says the Catechism.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, we follow these paths step by step, by
everyday acts. For lay people, this means engaging in temporal affairs and
directing them according to God’s will.

We
cannot always see how our everyday acts help to establish and expand God’s
kingdom. We must enter the kingdom, the Catechism
says, in order to know its secrets. However, “we know that all things work
together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his
purpose,” St. Paul
says.

The
kingdom of heaven has come in the person of Christ
and grows mysteriously in the hearts of those incorporated into his mystical body, the Catechism says. In the
Church, it already exists.

However,
“the Church, and through her the world, will not be perfected in glory without
great trials,” it says. The Church will receive her perfection only at the
end of the world, says Lumen Gentium.
Meanwhile, she waits in exile, far from the Lord, longing for the full coming
of the kingdom, when she will be united in glory with her king.

“There
we shall rest and see, we shall see and love, we shall love and praise,” St. Augustine said. “What
other end do we have, if not to reach the kingdom that has no end?”